"Hand me that trowel, will you?"

"Sure." Piper yanked the little shovel out of the ground, where it'd been stabbed in for safekeeping. She held it out for Miranda Gardiner.

"Thanks," the head counselor of the Demeter cabin dug new holes into the earth, and Piper dropped seeds into them before covering them up.

Piper loved the smell of the strawberries at Camp Half-Blood.

After planting a few rows, she stood up and brushed dirt off her shorts, "I'm gonna find Jason now, that okay?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, of course," Miranda looked happy to be gardening, whether it was alone or with someone. And besides, a ton of campers from the Roman camp had visited, and she was having lots of fun with the Ceres kids.

Piper wandered around the camp, not seeing Jason anywhere. She looked in the Zeus cabin, the Poseidon cabin, and the pavilion. Eventually she found Leo, who was sparring with little Harley in the training room.

Harley was swinging a gigantic jagged sword, and Leo was testing out his skills with his own bronze sabre, which she knew he'd picked simply because it looked cool.

When Leo let Harley win, she called, "Hey Leo, have you seen Jason? I can't seem to find him anywhere."

"Oh yeah, I saw him go over to the forest."

Piper rolled her eyes. Her boyfriend was probably reflecting over things or killing monsters. "Thanks Leo."

"Hey wait! I'm coming too!"

They stepped into the forest. Piper readied her dagger in case any creature dared to challenge them.

"Which direction?" she asked Leo.

"Uh...that way I think," he pointed. After 2 minutes of walking, an Iris Message popped up.

It was Annabeth at Camp Jupiter, she looked so happy she'd give Akhlys a heart attack.

"Guess what," she said calmly, with her facial features twitching.

Before Piper could guess what, Annabeth had exploded into squeals, "Guess what guess what?!"

The daughter of Aphrodite's face broke into a smile as she realized why her friend was so happy. "What?"

"PERCY PROPOSED TO ME OH MY GODS!!"

"Oh my gods!" she cried, ecstatic. Of course, Piper was one of the people the Kelp Head went to for advice, so she knew all about his plans, but that didn't make it any less exciting.

"Congrats Annabeth!" Piper laughed.

Leo grinned widely, "Yeah, congratulations! Took your fiancé long enough."

They started talking about wedding plans when Leo nudged her, "Piper..."

She ignored him and continued chatting animatedly with Annabeth about who was going to be the bridesmaid.

"Piper..." he was pulling her shirt now.

"What is it?"

"I'm so sorry Pipes," he pointed to her right.

And about fifty feet away, almost shrouded by trees, she saw Jason sitting on a blanket, and holding hands with Praetor Reyna. And to her horror, he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

Her Jason.

"I-I'm sorry Annabeth but I-I have t-to go..."

"Piper what's wrong?" she practically screamed.

Piper turned and ran, away from the person she had thought was hers. And only hers.

• • •

She ran straight to the first place she thought of.

The Hephaestus cabin.

She sat down heavily onto a random bunk bed, tears streaming down her face. Thank the gods that the Hephaestus kids were either training or down in the forges.

After a few moments Leo rushed in. He stood in the doorway for a minute, before slowly sitting down next to her, unsure of how to act.

Wordlessly, he opened his arms. Piper fell into them, and cried into his shoulder as he comfortingly patted her back.

And all Piper could think about was how betrayed she felt. Jason had told her they were forever. Jason had told her he was going to hang with his old Roman friends, and maybe Piper wouldn't have minded so much if it wasn't that Reyna was clearly not just a friend to him.

She continued to let out heartbroken sobs until the horn sounded for dinner, blasting her out of Leo's hug. Piper wiped her eyes, utterly embarrassed.

"Do you want to go?" Leo asked her quietly.

She took a deep breath. She had to stay strong. "Yes, I think. I'm...sorry about your shirt."

"It's fine," he looked at his shirt, which had a huge wet stain at the shoulder, "are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay," he handed her some Kleenex from his tool belt.

She dabbed her tears and blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision of more tears. "I'm going to wash my face."

Leo nodded and she headed to the Hephaestus bathroom.

It was pretty impressive looking. When she walked in, lanterns on the ceiling lit up, and soft comforting music started playing, as if sensing her mood. Almost everything was metallic.

She made her way over to the sink and stared at the settings blankly. Piper sighed and shook her head. She punched the button for cold water with no ice, and splashed the water onto her face.

After that, and blowing her nose a few times, she felt much better.

She came out and saw Leo patiently sitting on the bed. "Okay I'm ready."

• • •

Piper took her food and sat down, not bothering to make a sacrifice to Aphrodite. She was just hating her now for the love goddess's little "twists and turns".

She sat at the Hephaestus table, not wanting to deal with her siblings. Chiron seemed to guess what had happened and didn't comment. A lot of people shot her questioning looks, but when they saw that her eyes were puffy and every now and then a tear would slip out, they slooked away and pretended they didn't notice, trying to save her some embarrassment.

Lacy came over. She pulled at her pigtails in concern, "Piper? Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

"H-he cheated on me," she choked, "with Reyna."

"Oh my gods Piper, I am so sorry, I am going to kill him."

"No Lacy it's fine thanks, I-I can deal with him."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay, stay strong Piper," she patted her on the back, gave her a kind smile, and left.

Piper tried to eat her tofu burger without adding salt.

"Pipes?" a voice said, she froze, "Why are you sitting at the Hephaestus table?"

She turned and saw, the one and only, Jason Grace.

Seeing him, she couldn't take it anymore. Piper put her head down on the table and started bawling again.

"Piper why are you crying? What happened?"

"I believe you know the answer to those questions," Leo replied coldly.

"I...I do?" Jason asked nervously.

"Hm, where were you before dinner I wonder. We even looked for you in the forest."

"Y-you did?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, and hey, I just realized, we didn't see Reyna around either, she's usually torturing the dummies in the training room."

She could hear Jason shifting around uncomfortably.

"So where were you Jason?"

"Uh..."

"By the way, in the woods, we saw a blanket on the ground, and do you know who were on it?"

"I...I was in the woods."

"Doing what?"

"Killing monsters, and by the way I saw two people sitting on a blanket, is that the answer to your q-"

"JASON GRACE WILL YOU STOP PRETENDING WE KNOW AND IT'S SO OBVIOUS YOU'RE LYING AND I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BEST FRIEND WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!" he stopped to catch his breath, "YOU HURT PIPER AND I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY WITH RA-RA!!" he paused again to get some oxygen, "OH WAIT ACTUALLY I DON'T WISH THAT I HOPE YOU HAVE A HORRIBLE SAD LIFE WITH REYNA AND ROT IN THE FIELDS OF PUNISHMENT I-"

"I'M SORRY!" Jason snapped, "Piper, I'm am so so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you-"

"Then what did you mean to do?" she snapped. "Make me leap up with joy when you told me you were dating someone else?"

The dining pavilion was silent now. Chiron flicked his tail uncomfortably, no doubt wondering what he should do.

"Piper it wasn't my fault Reyna just came at me and-"

"And what? You didn't resist did you? You two were holding hands! You weren't killing monsters and somehow ended up on a blanket with Reyna! You went to the forest to meet up with her! It was all planned!"

"We were going to talk about battle plans and she just-"

"BATTLE PLANS?! YOU TWO WERE DISCUSSING BATTLE PLANS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST??"

"Y-yeah!"

"Then what are these "plans" you made? Plans on battling with your tongues?"

Leo looked like he was going to explode. Flames were dancing in his hair.

Jason tried to plead with her, "Please, Piper, forgive—"

Piper exploded. "REALLY JASON? YOU JASON GRACE, ARE A SELFISH SELF CENTERED JERK AND A LIAR!! I SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED ACHELOUS!! YOU ARE JUST LIKE HERCULES!!"

"Pipes, I love y—"

"Well if you truly love me, which I doubt, then I'm afraid this relationship is very one-sided."

Jason gaped at her.

"All that talk, about being a team, you and I. They were all lies! You said you wanted me to just be Piper. But that wasn't what you wanted right? You wanted a powerful, beautiful, Roman! IT'S OVER!! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

"Piper I'm sorry!" he looked pleadingly at Leo, who just glared at him.

"Can...can we still be friends?"

 "NO," Leo snarled, "friends don't do this. Friends don't hurt each other. Friends should feel bad for doing things like this, you don't look very sad about losing your friends."

"But...I am! Nico?" Jason turned to Nico, who was leaning on a tree, quietly surveying the fight.

Nico shook his head, "Only friends would stick by your side. And I'm not one."

"Piper please!" Jason begged.

"Grace," she scowled, "I do not want to see your face EVER AGAIN!"

"Jason! Leave. Her. ALONE!!" Leo lobbed a fireball at him and the ground exploded at his feet.

Jason yelped and ran as Leo kept throwing fireballs. Reyna leapt from her seat at the Big table and ran after Jason, her cloak in flames.

Leo sat down, breathing heavily.

Piper moved next to him, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it Beauty Queen."

After ten minutes, Drew came over hesitantly, "Um...hi."

"Yes Drew?" Piper asked warily. She was all too familiar with how cruel the former head counselor could be.

Drew craved a half circle in the dirt with her right heel, "I heard what happened."

"Kind of hard not to."

"I...I just wanted to say that...I'm sorry for...you know...turning our cabin into a dictatorship, as you called it. And I saw what it's like to break someone's heart, so...I'm just telling you, I'm not doing that anymore."

Piper was surprised, "Oh..." it took a while for her brain to comprehend what she had just said. "I forgive you Drew."

"Yeah...thanks by the way, for making our cabin better, ya know..."

"You're welcome."

She shuffled away.

"Wow," Leo said, "that was unexpected."

Piper laughed. After getting all her anger out, she was feeling relieved, and almost happy again.